One of our readers suggested that I review the book The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History, by John M. Barry. It’s not a new book (it was published in 2004) but it is very pertinent to several of the issues that we have been discussing on this blog, especially in regards to the current anti-vaccine movement. It’s well worth reading for its historical insights, for its illumination of the scientific method, and for its accurate reporting of what science has learned about influenza.

In the great flu epidemic of 1918, influenza killed as many people in 24 weeks as AIDS has killed in 24 years. It’s hard to even imagine what that must have been like, but this book helps us imagine it. It tells horror stories: children found alone and starving beside the corpses of their parents in homes where all the adults had died, decomposing bodies piling up because there was no one left who was healthy enough to bury them. Sometimes the disease developed with stunning rapidity: during one 3 mile streetcar trip, the conductor, 3 passengers, and the driver died. In another incident, apparently healthy soldiers were being transferred to a new post by train; during the trip, men started coughing, bleeding, and collapsing; and by the time it arrived at its destination, 25% of the soldiers were so sick they had to be taken directly from train to hospital. 2/3 of them were eventually hospitalized in all, and 10% of them died. The mind boggles. (more…)